Roaming into the Beyond: Representations of Xian Immortality in Early Medieval Chinese Verse

In Roaming into the Beyond Zornica Kirkova provides the first detailed study in a Western language of Daoism-inspired themes in early medieval Chinese poetry. She examines representations of Daoist xian immortality in a broad range of versified literature from the Han until the end of the Six Dynasties, focusing on the transformations of themes, concepts, and imagery within a wide literary and religious context. Adopting a more integrated approach, the author explores both the complex interaction between poetry and Daoist religion and the interrelations between various verse forms and poetic themes. This book not only enhances our understanding of the complexities of early medieval literature but also reevaluates the place of Daoist religious thought in the intellectual life of the period.

Zornica Kirkova, Ph.D. (2007), Charles University in Prague, is currently a librarian at the East Asian Department of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Her research focuses on classical and early medieval Chinese literature, Daoism, and Daoist literature.

'When Herrlee Creel some eighty years ago posed the question “What is Daoism?” the proffered answers (including his own) have at best enjoyed only piecemeal and contentious acceptance. Zornica Kirkova’s study effectively uncovers one core component at the very heart of Daoism, present from its very beginnings: “immortality.” She does a fascinating job of illuminating the ways in which it was actively imagined, pursued, and represented both by Daoists themselves and other literati figures who saw themselves as inhabiting the Daoist world. Kirkova accomplishes this by way of her meticulous and painstaking efforts to document the ways in which the concept of “immortality” changed and developed as seen from the perspective of early medieval Chinese verse. Her book goes a long way in responding to Creel’s question.(...)
Roaming into the Beyond is stunning in both its scope and its detail. It simultaneously engages two heretofore somewhat separate topics, Chinese poetry, which we typically associate with the literati class, and Daoism, which we tend to associate either with hermits or ecclesiastics.(...) Without doubt, Roaming into the Beyond will long hold its unique place in both literary studies and Daoist studies. There is really nothing that compares to it in its seamless ability to bring the two fields together in such spectacular fashion. Kirkova’s work is truly groundbreaking.'
Thomas Michael, China Review International, 22/1 (2015)

"The work is by far the best and clearest account of the complex notion of immortality in medieval Daoism to date....Kirkova’s work is exemplary and inspiring, a true masterpiece of sinological expertise. It is also an outstanding example of complete and thorough usage of previous scholarship and proper referencing of Chinese titles—overall, a most expert work of the highest quality." - Livia Kohn, Boston University, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 80:2 (2020).